Single-Period Inventory Models in Fuzzy Environment: A Decision-Maker’s Attitudinal Approach

Abstract

The objective of this study is to provide an innovative way of developing strategies for single-period inventory model in a real decision-making environment. It is supposed that the single-period problem operates under uncertainty in customer demand, which is described by imprecise terms and modelled by fuzzy sets. We develop two inventory models of profit maximization. In first model, we consider a single item newsboy problem with triangular fuzzy demand and incorporate a decision-maker’s (DM) degree of optimism into the expected resultant profit. We show that how the DM’s attitudinal scale affects the optimal solution in making decision. In the next, we propose a model for constraint multiple seasonal-products with slot-wise fuzzy demand under single-period framework. Since price is an observable component of a product that results in customers purchasing or not purchasing it, due to the competitive market and necessity of item in time, we consider slot-wise selling price. In both models, the objective is to find the optimal order quantity that will maximize the total expected profit after the end of the season. The effectiveness of such models is illustrated by numerical examples.